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Great Weather For Ducks...And Southern Californians

1/1/2015

4 Comments

 
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    The day before yesterday  the subject among Angelinos (as citizens of Los Angeles are known) was the glorious weather. 
    "We rarely see such a day,"  said my daughter Maria cheerfully as she breezed through the front door after work.
    "This is great," said my son-in-law Justin,  glancing out the window during dinner.
    It was pouring rain. 
    "I just love the rain,"  sighed Maria, who used to hate rainy days back when she was growing up in verdant Ohio.
    Earlier in the day I'd gone on a shopping trip to Ikea.  The person standing in front of me at the check-out line looked out the store window at the overcast sky and the palm trees swaying in the wind.
    "Oh",  she cried ,  "Is that rain?"
   
Indeed it was, and folks couldn't have been happier for this cold, wet, rare Southern California  day.
    Because, along with the rest of the state, Los Angeles has been in the grip of a severe drought for going on three years.
    Though known for it's balmy, sunny, Mediterranean-type climate, Los Angeles does normally have it's rainy season during the winter months.  The winter rains feed the Sierra Nevada Snowpack -  the precipitation trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the form of snow - which then melts in the spring and supplies Los Angeles with a third of it's water supply.
    But because of the lack of rainfall for the past few years the snowpack is currently at only 12 percent of its normal volume.
    And so Los Angeles is dry, dry, dry and the citizens continue to be under some water-use restrictions and have a constant reminder of the drought in the brownness of the hills and palm trees.  In some California counties where the drought has reached critical levels residents who break the water restrictions face strict fines and may even be required to go to "water school", classes that provide instruction on how to conserve water.
   And so the rare downpour is a cause for elation.
    And for some, wonder.
    There had been another rainstorm several weeks earlier and for my two grandbabies, aged 3 years and 18 months and born into the drought, it was the first rain they'd ever seen.
    "It was like they were seeing unicorns, "  said my daughter as she described how the two little ones stood looking out the window, entranced by the rain streaming down the window pane.  "It was magical for them,"  she said.
    But the magic didn't last. 
    By the following morning the rain had dried up and the sky had returned to its clear California cerulean blue
:
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    Sadly, there's no rain in the Los Angeles forecast anytime soon.
    And so until the Lord sees fit to restore the rainy season to this patch of the planet,  I guess Californians will have to settle for  practicing water conservation and consoling  themselves with bright blue skies and dazzling sunshine.


   
   
4 Comments
Romaine
1/2/2015 12:22:26 am

Water scarcity seems to be the wave of the future. I remember once when Rick was alive his grandson was playing in our back yard with the water coming out of the hose. Rick turned to me and said - we should just let him play with the water as much as he wants now. When he has grand kids he can tell them about a time when there was so much water you could play with it.

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Patti
1/2/2015 02:58:44 am

Yes, you're right, and so was Rick. They say that future wars won't be fought over oil or land but over water unless we start taking this coming crisis seriously. California is taking it seriously right now and Angelinos are not suffering as much as they might be during this drought because during their last drought they set in place water conservation laws and systems- water-saving shower heads, toilets, lawn-sprinkling systems and schedules - that are used to this day, so people think about water use and are used to conserving. When we were in Spain there were even more stringent water-conservations practices: water-saving toilets, showers that only sprayed for a minute or two at a time, then you had to push the button again for another minute's worth, etc. We do take our water for granted, though.

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MRianne
1/4/2015 07:44:38 am

We've had two very rainy days in this bleak mid winter: the fields are flooded, the windows fogged, spirits dampened. Reading about LA is certainly a reminder to be thankful for what we have.

Reply
Patti
1/4/2015 02:11:53 pm

I know, right? We really should be thankful for an occasional bleak rainy day!

Reply



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